Road Tripe to Les Gets
Discussion
This Friday, my family and I are driving to Les Gets. First time ever driving to a ski resort.
We are taking our Mitsubishi Barbarian and I have equipped it with some nice winter tyres.
I have ordered the euro kit with the triangle, breathalyser etc.
Advised our insurance company
Calling the AA today to check we have euro cover.
Looking to head down the A26.
Have I missed anything or does anyone have any advice?
We are taking our Mitsubishi Barbarian and I have equipped it with some nice winter tyres.
I have ordered the euro kit with the triangle, breathalyser etc.
Advised our insurance company
Calling the AA today to check we have euro cover.
Looking to head down the A26.
Have I missed anything or does anyone have any advice?
andyb28 said:
This Friday, my family and I are driving to Les Gets. First time ever driving to a ski resort.
We are taking our Mitsubishi Barbarian and I have equipped it with some nice winter tyres.
I have ordered the euro kit with the triangle, breathalyser etc.
Advised our insurance company
Calling the AA today to check we have euro cover.
Looking to head down the A26.
Have I missed anything or does anyone have any advice?
The A26 will get you to Newhaven. Then there is water. Plan ahead.We are taking our Mitsubishi Barbarian and I have equipped it with some nice winter tyres.
I have ordered the euro kit with the triangle, breathalyser etc.
Advised our insurance company
Calling the AA today to check we have euro cover.
Looking to head down the A26.
Have I missed anything or does anyone have any advice?
Seems fine to me. Its a nice easy drive on the french side.
I have winters on my car and have no chains - I havent needed them in 3 years of wintering in the alps. Not sure if the winter tyre satisfies the gendarmes or not but realistically you'll probably only encounter snow for the last few miles. Maybe not even then with the erratic freezing levels at the moment!
Enjoy!
I have winters on my car and have no chains - I havent needed them in 3 years of wintering in the alps. Not sure if the winter tyre satisfies the gendarmes or not but realistically you'll probably only encounter snow for the last few miles. Maybe not even then with the erratic freezing levels at the moment!
Enjoy!
The drive is easy enough.
All of these are personal preference, but here you go:-
Food - on the way can be extortionate in the services and the queues can be horrible. We take a few supermarket sarnies, salads, drinks etc. in a cold bag.
Fuel - it seems that everyone wants to fill up at the same place at the same time over half term weekend. Probably worse on Saturday and Sunday. We queued for 45 to fuel up s couple of years ago, on the AutoRoute. Much quicker to leave the autoroute and fill up in a town, very close to the autoroute.
Chains - for the cost, I would take them. Granted, you may only need them for a few miles, but when that few miles is trying to leave the resort in a weeks time, it's good to know you will be able to do it. Practice putting the chains on. Put gloves and a head torch in the chains bag - it WILL be cold and dark when you try to fit them.
TAG - too late to get your own, but can you borrow one. Can save you loads of time.
Map - get an up to date one. The French love to change road numbers and the sat nav don't always have it right.
Screenwash - up the concentration to stop it freezing or add a little meths. Carry some extra.
Have a good trip - snow looks like it isn't going to stop!
All of these are personal preference, but here you go:-
Food - on the way can be extortionate in the services and the queues can be horrible. We take a few supermarket sarnies, salads, drinks etc. in a cold bag.
Fuel - it seems that everyone wants to fill up at the same place at the same time over half term weekend. Probably worse on Saturday and Sunday. We queued for 45 to fuel up s couple of years ago, on the AutoRoute. Much quicker to leave the autoroute and fill up in a town, very close to the autoroute.
Chains - for the cost, I would take them. Granted, you may only need them for a few miles, but when that few miles is trying to leave the resort in a weeks time, it's good to know you will be able to do it. Practice putting the chains on. Put gloves and a head torch in the chains bag - it WILL be cold and dark when you try to fit them.
TAG - too late to get your own, but can you borrow one. Can save you loads of time.
Map - get an up to date one. The French love to change road numbers and the sat nav don't always have it right.
Screenwash - up the concentration to stop it freezing or add a little meths. Carry some extra.
Have a good trip - snow looks like it isn't going to stop!
Nobby Diesel said:
The drive is easy enough.
All of these are personal preference, but here you go:-
Food - on the way can be extortionate in the services and the queues can be horrible. We take a few supermarket sarnies, salads, drinks etc. in a cold bag.
Fuel - it seems that everyone wants to fill up at the same place at the same time over half term weekend. Probably worse on Saturday and Sunday. We queued for 45 to fuel up s couple of years ago, on the AutoRoute. Much quicker to leave the autoroute and fill up in a town, very close to the autoroute.
Chains - for the cost, I would take them. Granted, you may only need them for a few miles, but when that few miles is trying to leave the resort in a weeks time, it's good to know you will be able to do it. Practice putting the chains on. Put gloves and a head torch in the chains bag - it WILL be cold and dark when you try to fit them.
TAG - too late to get your own, but can you borrow one. Can save you loads of time.
Map - get an up to date one. The French love to change road numbers and the sat nav don't always have it right.
Screenwash - up the concentration to stop it freezing or add a little meths. Carry some extra.
Have a good trip - snow looks like it isn't going to stop!
Some great advice in there, thank you very much. All of these are personal preference, but here you go:-
Food - on the way can be extortionate in the services and the queues can be horrible. We take a few supermarket sarnies, salads, drinks etc. in a cold bag.
Fuel - it seems that everyone wants to fill up at the same place at the same time over half term weekend. Probably worse on Saturday and Sunday. We queued for 45 to fuel up s couple of years ago, on the AutoRoute. Much quicker to leave the autoroute and fill up in a town, very close to the autoroute.
Chains - for the cost, I would take them. Granted, you may only need them for a few miles, but when that few miles is trying to leave the resort in a weeks time, it's good to know you will be able to do it. Practice putting the chains on. Put gloves and a head torch in the chains bag - it WILL be cold and dark when you try to fit them.
TAG - too late to get your own, but can you borrow one. Can save you loads of time.
Map - get an up to date one. The French love to change road numbers and the sat nav don't always have it right.
Screenwash - up the concentration to stop it freezing or add a little meths. Carry some extra.
Have a good trip - snow looks like it isn't going to stop!
Good call, We drove to Les Gets last year, we chose it as it is known to be particularly family friendly, a nice small resort with accommodation near to the ski school and main lifts, and an easy drive, one of the closest resorts to Geneva adn Calais. Very easy route, keep heading south east - A26, A5 at Troyes, A39 at Beauchemin, then finally onto the A40 round past Geneva to Cluses and its 20 mins up from the town to the resort. It was about 7.5 hours from Calais. Looks like have had plenty of snow all the way up and down the mountain so you should be in for a treat!
We had originally booked an early Saturday morning tunnel but then decided to change it and drive through the night to avoid any bad weather and changeover traffic. Benefit of this was the kids slept all the way, and there was zero traffic.
I'd really recommend this, we arrived about 8am and we had a whole day in the resort, sorting passes, ski hire, ski school etc out without rushing about, and we were able to have a nice breakfast overlooking the bottom of the runs, play in the snow with the kids (there's a toboggan slope (our £5 special from Argos we took with us finally got some use after 4 years!) and a nice outside bar there where mum & dad could keep an eye on the kids while relaxing. We were lucky the apartments took pity on us and allowed us early check in (normal check in at our place was 5pm!), though they had allowed us to park up in the underground car park first thing and use their loo to change into snow gear.
For the drive we had winter tyres, snow chains (I had practiced putting them on!), some thick gloves, head torch hi viz for all passengers, and all the extras needed (or not) for France. Some spare tools, wd40, tape, screenwash came along just in case. Insurance was sorted (green card provided by Ins Co as part of cover), bank account covered holiday insurance and Euro breakdown cover. Copies of all registration, insurance and licenses. Didn't bother with a toll token as I gambled on the fact we'd be travelling at off peak and after 25 yrs of driving in France have not had to queue at a toll yet. Make that 26 years now!
We took some food and snacks and drinks for the drive, to keep the kids quiet when they eventually woke up (pulling off at Cluses woke them up surrounded by snowy mountains, for them it was like waking up in Frozen land, brilliant!) though it was good when stopping for a pitstop to cover fuel, loo a quick coffeee and switch drivers. Me and Mrs P took turns driving. French Mways are great, though I do miss the cats-eyes they use in the UK for lane markers, approaching distant slow moving trucks in the dark a bit of a game when you are flying up behind them at 130km/h figuring out which lane they are in!
Plenty of family friendly places in Les Gets, ski school was pretty good, started at a reasonable time (9.30). We had the two kids 3&4 yrs old in lessons in the morning, when we did most of our skiing, then picked up the kids for lunch then mucked about with them in the nursery slopes or went swimming in the afternoon). The kids play area up at Chavannes was a good laugh even for the absolute beginners. I was trying to persuade Mrs P to go again this year, but she's insisting on a big summer holiday this time, so I just have to watch the snow reports and wait.....!
We returned early on Saturday morning (about 8.00am) to avoid the changeover traffic, and were back at Calais by 4.30-5.00pm, took a bit longer as we stopped more to give the kids some air who were a bit more challenging on the way back!
I'm sure you will have a great time, I am very jealous!
We had originally booked an early Saturday morning tunnel but then decided to change it and drive through the night to avoid any bad weather and changeover traffic. Benefit of this was the kids slept all the way, and there was zero traffic.
I'd really recommend this, we arrived about 8am and we had a whole day in the resort, sorting passes, ski hire, ski school etc out without rushing about, and we were able to have a nice breakfast overlooking the bottom of the runs, play in the snow with the kids (there's a toboggan slope (our £5 special from Argos we took with us finally got some use after 4 years!) and a nice outside bar there where mum & dad could keep an eye on the kids while relaxing. We were lucky the apartments took pity on us and allowed us early check in (normal check in at our place was 5pm!), though they had allowed us to park up in the underground car park first thing and use their loo to change into snow gear.
For the drive we had winter tyres, snow chains (I had practiced putting them on!), some thick gloves, head torch hi viz for all passengers, and all the extras needed (or not) for France. Some spare tools, wd40, tape, screenwash came along just in case. Insurance was sorted (green card provided by Ins Co as part of cover), bank account covered holiday insurance and Euro breakdown cover. Copies of all registration, insurance and licenses. Didn't bother with a toll token as I gambled on the fact we'd be travelling at off peak and after 25 yrs of driving in France have not had to queue at a toll yet. Make that 26 years now!
We took some food and snacks and drinks for the drive, to keep the kids quiet when they eventually woke up (pulling off at Cluses woke them up surrounded by snowy mountains, for them it was like waking up in Frozen land, brilliant!) though it was good when stopping for a pitstop to cover fuel, loo a quick coffeee and switch drivers. Me and Mrs P took turns driving. French Mways are great, though I do miss the cats-eyes they use in the UK for lane markers, approaching distant slow moving trucks in the dark a bit of a game when you are flying up behind them at 130km/h figuring out which lane they are in!
Plenty of family friendly places in Les Gets, ski school was pretty good, started at a reasonable time (9.30). We had the two kids 3&4 yrs old in lessons in the morning, when we did most of our skiing, then picked up the kids for lunch then mucked about with them in the nursery slopes or went swimming in the afternoon). The kids play area up at Chavannes was a good laugh even for the absolute beginners. I was trying to persuade Mrs P to go again this year, but she's insisting on a big summer holiday this time, so I just have to watch the snow reports and wait.....!
We returned early on Saturday morning (about 8.00am) to avoid the changeover traffic, and were back at Calais by 4.30-5.00pm, took a bit longer as we stopped more to give the kids some air who were a bit more challenging on the way back!
I'm sure you will have a great time, I am very jealous!
Edited by prand on Wednesday 10th February 14:16
[quote=prand]Good call, We drove to Les Gets last year, we chose it as it is known to be particularly family friendly, a nice small resort with accommodation near to the ski school and main lifts, and an easy drive, one of the closest resorts to Geneva adn Calais. Very easy route, keep heading south east - A26, A5 at Troyes, A39 at Beauchemin, then finally onto the A40 round past Geneva to Cluses and its 20 mins up from the town to the resort. It was about 7.5 hours from Calais. Looks like have had plenty of snow all the way up and down the mountain so you should be in for a treat!
We had originally booked an early Saturday morning tunnel but then decided to change it and drive through the night to avoid any bad weather and changeover traffic. Benefit of this was the kids slept all the way, and there was zero traffic.
I'd really recommend this, we arrived about 8am and we had a whole day in the resort, sorting passes, ski hire, ski school etc out without rushing about, and we were able to have a nice breakfast overlooking the bottom of the runs, play in the snow with the kids (there's a toboggan slope (our £5 special from Argos we took with us finally got some use after 4 years!) and a nice outside bar there where mum & dad could keep an eye on the kids while relaxing. We were lucky the apartments took pity on us and allowed us early check in (normal check in at our place was 5pm!), though they had allowed us to park up in the underground car park first thing and use their loo to change into snow gear.
For the drive we had winter tyres, snow chains (I had practiced putting them on!), some thick gloves, head torch hi viz for all passengers, and all the extras needed (or not) for France. Some spare tools, wd40, tape, screenwash came along just in case. Insurance was sorted (green card provided by Ins Co as part of cover), bank account covered holiday insurance and Euro breakdown cover. Copies of all registration, insurance and licenses. Didn't bother with a toll token as I gambled on the fact we'd be travelling at off peak and after 25 yrs of driving in France have not had to queue at a toll yet. Make that 26 years now!
We took some food and snacks and drinks for the drive, to keep the kids quiet when they eventually woke up (pulling off at Cluses woke them up surrounded by snowy mountains, for them it was like waking up in Frozen land, brilliant!) though it was good when stopping for a pitstop to cover fuel, loo a quick coffeee and switch drivers. Me and Mrs P took turns driving. French Mways are great, though I do miss the cats-eyes they use in the UK for lane markers, approaching distant slow moving trucks in the dark a bit of a game when you are flying up behind them at 130km/h figuring out which lane they are in!
Plenty of family friendly places in Les Gets, ski school was pretty good, started at a reasonable time (9.30). We had the two kids 3&4 yrs old in lessons in the morning, when we did most of our skiing, then picked up the kids for lunch then mucked about with them in the nursery slopes or went swimming in the afternoon). The kids play area up at Chavannes was a good laugh even for the absolute beginners. I was trying to persuade Mrs P to go again this year, but she's insisting on a big summer holiday this time, so I just have to watch the snow reports and wait.....!
We returned early on Saturday morning (about 8.00am) to avoid the changeover traffic, and were back at Calais by 4.30-5.00pm, took a bit longer as we stopped more to give the kids some air who were a bit more challenging on the way back! Tablet mounted in the back with lots of films was very, very helpful.
I'm sure you will have a great time, I am very jealous!
We had originally booked an early Saturday morning tunnel but then decided to change it and drive through the night to avoid any bad weather and changeover traffic. Benefit of this was the kids slept all the way, and there was zero traffic.
I'd really recommend this, we arrived about 8am and we had a whole day in the resort, sorting passes, ski hire, ski school etc out without rushing about, and we were able to have a nice breakfast overlooking the bottom of the runs, play in the snow with the kids (there's a toboggan slope (our £5 special from Argos we took with us finally got some use after 4 years!) and a nice outside bar there where mum & dad could keep an eye on the kids while relaxing. We were lucky the apartments took pity on us and allowed us early check in (normal check in at our place was 5pm!), though they had allowed us to park up in the underground car park first thing and use their loo to change into snow gear.
For the drive we had winter tyres, snow chains (I had practiced putting them on!), some thick gloves, head torch hi viz for all passengers, and all the extras needed (or not) for France. Some spare tools, wd40, tape, screenwash came along just in case. Insurance was sorted (green card provided by Ins Co as part of cover), bank account covered holiday insurance and Euro breakdown cover. Copies of all registration, insurance and licenses. Didn't bother with a toll token as I gambled on the fact we'd be travelling at off peak and after 25 yrs of driving in France have not had to queue at a toll yet. Make that 26 years now!
We took some food and snacks and drinks for the drive, to keep the kids quiet when they eventually woke up (pulling off at Cluses woke them up surrounded by snowy mountains, for them it was like waking up in Frozen land, brilliant!) though it was good when stopping for a pitstop to cover fuel, loo a quick coffeee and switch drivers. Me and Mrs P took turns driving. French Mways are great, though I do miss the cats-eyes they use in the UK for lane markers, approaching distant slow moving trucks in the dark a bit of a game when you are flying up behind them at 130km/h figuring out which lane they are in!
Plenty of family friendly places in Les Gets, ski school was pretty good, started at a reasonable time (9.30). We had the two kids 3&4 yrs old in lessons in the morning, when we did most of our skiing, then picked up the kids for lunch then mucked about with them in the nursery slopes or went swimming in the afternoon). The kids play area up at Chavannes was a good laugh even for the absolute beginners. I was trying to persuade Mrs P to go again this year, but she's insisting on a big summer holiday this time, so I just have to watch the snow reports and wait.....!
We returned early on Saturday morning (about 8.00am) to avoid the changeover traffic, and were back at Calais by 4.30-5.00pm, took a bit longer as we stopped more to give the kids some air who were a bit more challenging on the way back! Tablet mounted in the back with lots of films was very, very helpful.
I'm sure you will have a great time, I am very jealous!
It's an easy trip.
From the hip:
- Saturday will be really busy, so try to get all the way there on Friday if time (and your accommodation!) permits
- If you can't do this, then Troyes has always felt like the right place to stop for a few hours sleep before an early start
- A31 or A39 at Dijon? There's not a lot in it. If your French is up to it, listen to the traffic news and make your choice based on that
- Fill up before you get to the A40 - you can queue for hours in the petrol station(s) there (Valleiry?)
- If you're lucky enough to be making progress on the A40, watch out for the speed cameras as you near Geneva. They are well flagged by signage so no excuses
- If it's daylight, get off the A40 at Fillinges and take the D907 from there to Taninges via Mieussy. Nice drive and can be quicker than going through Cluses
- When you're in Les Gets be sure to visit La Paika for lunch, and be sure to avoid the Yeti
- Make sure you explore Mont Chery - it is worth it
- Don't follow your kids through the trees on the Choucas run - they will go places that you can't, and trees hurt
- Les Gets & Morzine pass always seems enough for us with the kids. Book them online for a discount and easy collection in the Tourist office
- The Ski Fun shop (opp Chavannes Express lift) is a great place to hire equipment if you've got kids as it is right at the bottom of the skiing. You can leave your boots there overnight etc.
Have fun.
From the hip:
- Saturday will be really busy, so try to get all the way there on Friday if time (and your accommodation!) permits
- If you can't do this, then Troyes has always felt like the right place to stop for a few hours sleep before an early start
- A31 or A39 at Dijon? There's not a lot in it. If your French is up to it, listen to the traffic news and make your choice based on that
- Fill up before you get to the A40 - you can queue for hours in the petrol station(s) there (Valleiry?)
- If you're lucky enough to be making progress on the A40, watch out for the speed cameras as you near Geneva. They are well flagged by signage so no excuses
- If it's daylight, get off the A40 at Fillinges and take the D907 from there to Taninges via Mieussy. Nice drive and can be quicker than going through Cluses
- When you're in Les Gets be sure to visit La Paika for lunch, and be sure to avoid the Yeti
- Make sure you explore Mont Chery - it is worth it
- Don't follow your kids through the trees on the Choucas run - they will go places that you can't, and trees hurt
- Les Gets & Morzine pass always seems enough for us with the kids. Book them online for a discount and easy collection in the Tourist office
- The Ski Fun shop (opp Chavannes Express lift) is a great place to hire equipment if you've got kids as it is right at the bottom of the skiing. You can leave your boots there overnight etc.
Have fun.
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone that gave advice.
We had a fantastic holiday.
Broke the driving down over two days. Stopped over in an Ibis in Reims and this doesn't really affect how long we had as we set out on the Friday when the kids came back from school.
I did buy snow chains, which weren't cheap for L200 size tyres, but I guess its something I can keep for the future. We didn't need them this time as the roads are obviously kept very clear. We did have to go up a very steep side road to the chalet and it was covered in a foot of snow when we arrived on the Saturday, but the 4x4 and winter tyres worked very well. It was cleared in the morning with no opportunity to turn to ice, so all good.
The kids loved the Choucas run, we did it daily as they couldn't get enough of it. I really liked Mont Chery, riding the red back down that crossed the roads was a whole new experience and I fear my snowboard may require some touching up at the ski shop :O
By Driving instead of having a package holiday allowed us better accomodation, we had a chalet on the edge of Piste B, which takes you down to Morzine, it was just 50m from the Chalet, so fantastic location.
The only mistake I made, was we ordered the lift passes online and I assumed we would get them from the ticket office under the ski lift (the one with the escalator) However, pre-ordered passes are held at the tourist information office. Something I only found out after standing in a queue for 30 mins.
This was our first trip in the school holidays, wow I have never seen lift queues like it. We found it best to stay away from some of the more common runs where possible, as the kids can do a fair bit of mileage now, taking them away from the masses was a good move. Mont Chery was very quiet compared to runs near the Pleney.
Had an awesome Braserade in the Cow place in Les Gets. In fact just thinking about it is making my mouth water.
Total mileage for us was just over 1400 miles. I would 100% do it again, it was no where near as bad as I thought and lovely to be pleasing ourselves rather than being hearded like sheep on and off planes and coaches.
Many thanks for all the helpful tips you all gave.
Andy
We had a fantastic holiday.
Broke the driving down over two days. Stopped over in an Ibis in Reims and this doesn't really affect how long we had as we set out on the Friday when the kids came back from school.
I did buy snow chains, which weren't cheap for L200 size tyres, but I guess its something I can keep for the future. We didn't need them this time as the roads are obviously kept very clear. We did have to go up a very steep side road to the chalet and it was covered in a foot of snow when we arrived on the Saturday, but the 4x4 and winter tyres worked very well. It was cleared in the morning with no opportunity to turn to ice, so all good.
The kids loved the Choucas run, we did it daily as they couldn't get enough of it. I really liked Mont Chery, riding the red back down that crossed the roads was a whole new experience and I fear my snowboard may require some touching up at the ski shop :O
By Driving instead of having a package holiday allowed us better accomodation, we had a chalet on the edge of Piste B, which takes you down to Morzine, it was just 50m from the Chalet, so fantastic location.
The only mistake I made, was we ordered the lift passes online and I assumed we would get them from the ticket office under the ski lift (the one with the escalator) However, pre-ordered passes are held at the tourist information office. Something I only found out after standing in a queue for 30 mins.
This was our first trip in the school holidays, wow I have never seen lift queues like it. We found it best to stay away from some of the more common runs where possible, as the kids can do a fair bit of mileage now, taking them away from the masses was a good move. Mont Chery was very quiet compared to runs near the Pleney.
Had an awesome Braserade in the Cow place in Les Gets. In fact just thinking about it is making my mouth water.
Total mileage for us was just over 1400 miles. I would 100% do it again, it was no where near as bad as I thought and lovely to be pleasing ourselves rather than being hearded like sheep on and off planes and coaches.
Many thanks for all the helpful tips you all gave.
Andy
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